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  1. I was also sold this "invisible" ad on! Only to be told by the dealership "after" that it's not adjustable. So basically it's just a dimly lit thin strip! This should be included. Lexus could and should've done better!
    4 points
  2. Hi. Some friends of mine suggested that I should post this here for more people to see. Hopefully it'll help people for years to come. You will need: About 50 bucks budget for the balljoint rod and the pipe clamp. Height sensor with bracket. 10mm wrench Washers that fit 10mm/M6 bolts. 10mm/M6 nuts Some smaller (8mm wrench) I own a 2001 LS430. The height sensor control arm's slider has rusted and become damaged over the last 19 or so years. The ball joint rod to the height sensor has also seized too. The height adjustment rod there in the red was seized, and the height slider in the blue was badly corroded and broken off. Rather than buy an entire control arm (green) this is an alterative method to repair it The arm is ~26mm in diameter. Buy yourself one of these pipe clamps in 26mm diameter. Or make one. Shouldn't be expensive. The hole needs to fit a M6/10mm bolt. Grind off the remnants of that slider from the control arm, and slide the pipe clamp over, and put your 10mm/M6 bolt and nut through and secure it in place where the slider used to be. Rather than using the control arm as a slider, we can instead use a sliding ball joint rod such as this one; This is a 220 320 00 32 from Mercedes - a height adjustment rod with a 8mm locking and a 10mm/M6 ball joint bolt. You can pick one up off eBay for cheap. Or find some other M6/10mm adjustable ball joint rod. Look at the diagram and try to imagine it in your head. This is what your bracket and rod/clamps should look like. One day I might snap a picture of what my repair looks like, but I hope you can make out what I mean via the diagram. This repair should be very easy. Maybe some sanding/grinding and surface preperation. The clamp will hold on tight and is easy to replace. The adjustable link rod will last longer and allow for easy adjustment, and less risk of corrosion damage. Hope this helps. This is a fairly easy job and took me less than 2 or so hours to do.
    3 points
  3. Did I mention this?..... I don't like the fact that our governments plan to force us to buy EVs. I wouldn't mind having one, as we already have solar panels and don't pay for electricity, but I think we should be able to choose what we drive (within reason).
    3 points
  4. At the part store they run a load test on the battery that mimics a big draw. If it holds up to a certain voltage it means the battery itself is not weakened yet. As the battery ages it will weaken as in not be able to supply a given amount of cold cranking amps. When its cold the oil thickens some thereby making the engine have to work harder to rotate. Hence the term "cold" cranking amps. I'd say you should investigate why the check engine lamp is lighting up. It could be a sign of what is taking place to cause your car to struggle to crank over. The part store can often "read the code" and determine why the CEL is lighting. My gut tells me your voltage regulator in the alternator is hit and miss. A long time ago that was a little box on the fire wall or fender. These days they are inside of the alternator. It determines how much electricity goes to the engine to keep it running and to the battery to charge it. It only has to be off by a little to keep the engine running but not have extra to charge the battery. Another issue could be a parasitic drain. An out of the ordinary draw on the battery when the car isn't running. In my 04 GS 300 for example the CD changer kept trying to change discs and the seat memory kept activating. Now I could not hear the disc changer nor was the seat memory moving the seat, but they were drawing on the system leading to a weak or dead battery if I didn't drive the car every day. Yet another issue may be short trips don't allow the battery to charge enough. Example; start the car, drive to a store 10 minutes away, finish there, start car and drive 10 minutes to another store. Never giving the engine a good 30-45 minutes to charge the battery back up to the voltage used to start the car can also lead to the hard to crank or dead battery issue. Hope you find it soon and it's a cheap and easy fix.
    3 points
  5. No reason to upgrade, Those stock wheels are Classic on the SC 😉
    3 points
  6. But you love the Covid virus? 🙄
    3 points
  7. I just installed the rr racing supercharger. It’s the only way to go bud
    3 points
  8. That one is my son's new puppy. Her brother came home with me Chocolate lab mom, stranger in the night dad Yesterday they played all afternoon.
    3 points
  9. Purchase has been made!...I could not turn down the deal I got & the actual ES...2020 ES 350 'premium' with only 11k miles in Nebula Grey Pearl (windows are already tinted)....over 2 years of full factory warranty remaining; 1 owner, full service history & Lexus CPO. Our 'premium package' in Canada is equipped quite differently than our friends south of the border....with more features / standard equipment. Originally I wanted the UL package....but in these parts, they are very rare (I reached out to 17 Lexus dealers in a 400 mile radius of me...the UL units that are available are 5 to 6 k more & only about 20% are actually at Lexus dealers...the premium pkg checks 95% of the boxes I was looking for....as the expression goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'. I literally have a 6 minute drive to work... I pick the car up this Saturday.
    3 points
  10. I like it when I'm trimming a rose bush, grab one to place in a jar and while heading indoors the Mrs arrives from work so I hand her the rose. Or when I come from work and the dog greets me at the door, tail all wagging-like. And the parrot says "welcome home"…… Or when a nice breeze blows just as the grass cut chore is over and the Mrs brings out a tall glass of ice cold spring water. Or when a new baseball cap fits my noggin just right without adjusting it. Or I step on the bathroom scale expecting to have gained weight but the scale shows I actually lost a little. Or when my son and I went to do the first start after an engine swap, expecting a hard to start issue but ole bessy fires right up. Or when the lawnmover starts first pull……again. Or helping out old people. Or thanking a soldier/veteran. Or tipping the person at the toll booth. Yes I stop and pay in cash so I can do that. Or when the voicemail on your phone was not a robo-call and instead was a friend telling you "hello, here's my new phone number" Or when you sneeze and a perfect stranger says "bless you". Life is short. But smiling makes you live longer. Trouble with being dead is it lasts so long.
    3 points
  11. The cost of dental work, especially deep cleaning by laser and periodontal surgery, but also including implants.
    3 points
  12. That's the view when I pull into the driveway after work. Unseen in the photo is the dog wagging his tail "it's that guy, he's back, yay!!"
    3 points
  13. Update: I think I have got it after all the work, time, and money spent. I started checking again I found an unbelievable vacuum leak around lower intake manifold. replace gasket today runs great thanks for all of the support. something that simple fix. when the engine was swap the starter was replaced. The gasket moved or something apparently cause a vacuum leak. I had no idea a vacuum leak could cause random misfires. I was sure it was an ignition problem.
    3 points
  14. The Lexus brand cell phone that was a dealer installed option lowered the HVAC fan speed and muted the audio system while a call was in progress. I even connected an aftermarket Nokia CARK-91 phone system I installed in my second (2000) LS400 to mute the audio system but I didn't bother to connect it to lower the HVAC fan speed. Even when a Lexus phone system was never installed, corrosion of the factory installed cell phone harness in the trunk can cause HVAC and audio system issues.
    3 points
  15. 20 years ago I swapped a domain name for a Lexus. The love affair started and I am now on my 10th Lexus
    3 points
  16. My Lexus is my weekend car. My daily is my 2009 Mazda 3i.
    3 points
  17. I have not seen this posted here so I'm going to try. Like many, my odometer quit around 160k. Taking it apart I found the spindle gear cracked and in pieces, but the drive gear on the motor was fine. I replaced the spindle gear with a 10 tooth nylon gear I bought off ebay for less than ten dollars and it's still working after a 100 miles. It's important to use a 10 tooth gear, as my first attempt was a 12 tooth gear and that did not work. The hardest part was getting the dash out. Those electrical connectors are tough. If you attempt it be sure to disconnect the battery before starting for at least a few minutes or you run the risk of fouling up your air bag light. Another Couple of tips - In order to get the spindle out you will have to remove a very small e clip (see photo). Be careful, if you push to hard it could go flying and is very hard to find on the floor 😞 . You will also have to ream out the center hole of the gear to get it to fit over the spindle. The spindle is 2mm diameter and even though the gear I bought said it had a 2mm hole it would not fit. I used a 5/64 drill to ream it just slightly and it was a tap fit to get it to the splined shaft area in the middle. I realize the new gear is not a screw type gear like the original gear but it is only 5mm wide so it appears to be working without binding.
    2 points
  18. I like being alive !!!
    2 points
  19. I reached out to the place that sold me the car and they recommended a locksmith they use. He provided same day service, cut 4 keys for me, and programmed them All in for $160. Thanks for the help!
    2 points
  20. Thanks for the advice it is much appreciated. Now that it has been bleed correctly. I now have power with no leaks.
    2 points
  21. re: 400h Thank you for your reply. I'll have to jack it up and check. I happen to have a new crush washer for the drain bolt. I hope I can use that one.
    2 points
  22. Fixed! Put the transmission in neutral, took off the bolts and rotated the driveshaft. Tightened everything down and drove it and it was connected back the right way. Thank you to everyone for your help!
    2 points
  23. https://youtu.be/vnOM7RfgP1A this is about as easy as diy projects come. No tools needed and instant results!
    2 points
  24. Hi everyone, I want to you my latest addition to my RX330. A custom design and fabricated prerunner bar with a skid plate. Going to add lights in the future.
    2 points
  25. So for the RX350h, 91 octane or higher is recommended, but 87 is considered to be the minimum value. The RX500h requires a minimum octane of 91, which is the highest octane in CA and some other states like Arizona. The AKI numbers given by auto manufacturers is the average of the Research Octane Number (RON) and the Motor Octane Number (MON)which is (R+M)/2
    2 points
  26. From what I've read the resale value of a Mercedes is really bad after year 3. Not so much for the Lexus. The Mercedes might only command 45% of its sticker price in year 4 where the Lexus over 70%.
    2 points
  27. Much less likely to get shot due to reaching in glove box
    2 points
  28. I believe the image below shows the antennae routing for the RX400h.
    2 points
  29. I figured it out! Apparently the car was reading the old sensors (some still had battery life) which were downstairs in the basement on the opposite end of the house. I had no idea they could transmit that far. I disposed of the old sensors and the problem is gone.
    2 points
  30. The first thing you should have done is to look at all the codes. That would be easier if it has OBD II and not OBD I which flashes to indicate a problem area. Simply guessing and buying parts can be very expensive. You might want to spend $150 to have an expert look at it. That way, you'll have enough information to determine if the car is worth fixing.
    2 points
  31. That doesn't look boring to me.
    2 points
  32. My company is Fuel Injector Specialists, located in Colorado. I own a 1990 LS400, and I"m not here trolling for injector business, but my advice (and experience) on these cars is this: The chance of you having 8 good injectors is just about nil. I've rebuilt plenty of these, and about 10 percent are not buildable -- the spray pattern goes sideways or they leak down. Denso from the factory. The quality of Bosch? Nope, but if you keep water out of the gas, the majority of the factory injectors will last forever, it's just that Bosch uses a higher quality rust resistant super hard stainless metal alloy. Bosch will not substitute for Denso, in this case. Alas. Rough Idle? One or two bad injectors. Same with hard start. Same with burned up catalytic convertors -- these cats will outlive the car, if they have the correct fuel ratio ahead of them. Pintle caps and seals and filters? All replaceable. Good injectors and these engines will purr. Factory shop manual (of which I just paid $350 for the complete paper set) infers that it is possible to pull these injectors with the intake on. Nonsense. Think ahead and buy the throttle body and upper plenum gasket from Rock Auto. You'll need both. As another hint, the bottom bolts on the throttle body are impossible to start without a flexible magnetic/grab hook retrieval tool. Invaluable. NAPA, $20. Best money you will ever spend. Eliminates many bad words. Put the head of the bolt on the tool, using only the magnetic function not the grab hook, then bend yourself way down to see the opening in the throttle body, insert the bolt, then slide the tool off at a 90 degree angle. Voila. You don't use this tool, and the bolt will drop into the valley. Ouch. Intake plenum off, but first, careful careful with all those hoses, and be even more careful with the hoses at the front EGR temp sensor, the one that has two plastic barbed outlets and screws in vertically into the cooling passage. Aw, forget it. These outlets all break. You will break yours. Remove the sensor (unobtainable now, and was $300 plus dollars anyway. What the?), go to Napa and buy some small plastic barbed tees, cut them to match the ones you broke off. If you can pull your broken originals out of the hoses, even better. Then, take some super glue, a powerful magnifier so you can see to match the broken edges up perfectly, and judiciously super glue the broken tee back onto the temp sensor. That means don't use so much super glue that you block the ports. You will check with a small drill bit when you are all finished anyway. That super glue's only function is to get the tee to stay on from whence it (they) departed. Not strong enough to be anything but a placement. Next, buy some J&B plastic mender epoxy. Squeeze out a small amount of this stuff from its double syringe, on a cardboard piece, and stir while counting slowly to 30. Daub this mixture onto the tee/sensor broken area, which you cleaned of course, covering all sides nicely, leaving the barb exposed. Set the sensor aside ( as mentioned, you pulled this sensor from the engine, right? 15/16 combo wrench. And drained the radiator to even make this possible? This only makes sense. Ahem. ) Set this sensor aside for 24 hours. In a warm room. Don't be tempted to readjust the tee outlets even slightly. That''s what the super glue was for. If you do, the epoxy strength will absolutely disappear. A day later this fitting will be bulletproof. Never seen an older LS where these aren't busted off. This sensor stops the EGR from working when the engine is cold, and lets vacuum pass when it's warm. Your engine needs this. The earth's atmosphere needs this. All of humanity needs this. You get the idea. Pull the intake. Put all those bolts in a container. They re-torque at 20 lbs or so. Not much. You set them somewhere under hood and they will fall off, never to be seen again. Passing children will learn new words. Now, you can easily reach the fuel rails. The supply line to the pressure regulator and the line itself has banjo bolts. Nice design, but each banjo bolt has a copper washer on top and bottom. Take a very deep breath, put on your glasses, and DON'T lose those copper washers. Factory shop manual insists you need to replace them. Not necessary. Available at NAPA if you do. The fuel rail holds the injectors in. The hardest part of injector service is removing the wiring clips from the injectors. The little tab pushes down, and the clip pulls off. Don't rush this step. Don't yank without being sure the clip is released. Push down, then pull up. If you successfully get all the clips off without breaking some you qualify for a trophy of some type. Perhaps an old bowling trophy, or a second place spelling ribbon, etc. Indeed, you are truly a master mechanic. Buy quality new injectors if you can, but you can't. Don't buy Ultra. Chinese garbage. Not worth the effort to toss in the recycle bin. Rock has rebuilds, but we kick back about 15% of them because they are defective, usually pattern problems. Or they leak down. Slow engine death. Perfect injectors and this old girl purrs. Oh yeah. There is a cold start injector at the bottom of the intake plenum. Unobtainable. We can clean and build them. If they're not rotted out. We are junkyard doggies. A proud thing. When the occasional first gen LS400 comes into the wrecking yards, we grab extra injectors, computer, complete padded dash and glove box door if possible (very rare), all the missing top engine shrouds, a mass air flow sensor, throttle position sensors (plural), door lock motors if needed, etc. Final note. Don't think you can upgrade from the Pioneer radio to the Nakamichi. Ain't like the Buick Riviera with Bose GOLD. All the good stuff is in the radio, not due to additional active amps in the door units. Nakamichi rear speaker is a monster, but needs its own amp in the back. Meaning the wiring harness. Meaning the wiring harness is completely different at the radio. Oh well. Life is too short. And Interior? Went with the Katzkin leather, $1000 plus. We shall see. Doesn't have that extra double pleat in the center, but we'll live with that.
    2 points
  33. Exactly, Dave! The technology and geo-politics are changing so fast that you really want to slow down and ask the what-ifs. And with all the extra weight in the various plug-ins, tires will wear faster and generate more heat. Can't forget the Ford Exploder that kept blowing out tires because Ford and Firestone could not settle on a reasonable weight limit for the specified tire (depending on which side you talk to, of course). Engineers are only human...
    2 points
  34. No idea the sticker price but I'd say "if ya gotta ask ya probably can't afford it"…… I typically wait for cars to become old enough to fall into my price range but I doubt I'll live long enough for one of the LES cars 💀
    2 points
  35. Very nice! Is that a metal cup? You should also be able to find T-shirts with the Lexus logo. I have a Mazda one. There's a custom t-shirt store nearby. They can apply any kind of image to a shirt or shirts of your choice. I had them make a couple that are super-soft 100% cotton.
    2 points
  36. I don't like when I pour cereal into a bowl at midnight and discover the milk went sour. Dratz!!
    2 points
  37. I just did an install of a Metra kit on an RX300. This has the capability to include backup camera, navigation, and of course the climate control is also included. The deftails are in this video. We went with Metra because it is a known name in this space - not some AliBaba special. They produce similar kits for other Lexus vehicles with similar setup of climate control/navigation/stereo.
    2 points
  38. What is P0778 LEXUS code meaning? The Pressure Control (PC) Solenoid Valve an electronic pressure regulator that controls transmission line pressure based on current flow through its coil windings. As current flow is increased, the magnetic field produced by the coil moves the solenoid’s plunger further away from the exhaust port.
    2 points
  39. New lenses will always look better than a polishing job. However, you may want to research what is required to replace yours. Some swap efforts are not very easy. I used a Meguiar's headlight lens polishing kit. To me it had the right "ingredients".
    2 points
  40. I have always been in the Toyota family. The pandemic has made it hard to find the Toyota I wanted and I know Lexus IS the fancier side of Toyota. They are dependable cars and I need something that’s safe and will last a long time. So I am getting my RX 330 tomorrow!
    2 points
  41. Hi, I figured it out. There are 3 connectors to the door ECU. The far right connector that is closest to the door latch was not snug. I believe this is what controlled the auto-up/down feature. I retraced my steps and with help of other's suggestions, I found the problem and the window works now. Thank you.
    2 points
  42. Sure thing, Northwoodsperformance.com. The spacers are the same as the 01 to 07 Toyota highlander. Ask for Nathan the owner and he can give details. Much better quality than the Russian spacers. They have a kit that includes 4 spacers, front end links, and hardware. I am also going to lift my 2013 Toyota Highlander with their Gen 2 Highlander spacers. It has nearly the same suspension as the 04-09 Lexus RX series.
    2 points
  43. You're welcome. The speedometer needle in my '98 sticks (rarely) depending on the ambient temperature. I have read elsewhere that the problem is the instrument lube that's used in the gauge heads get sticky with age. The only real fix is to remove the cluster and have an instrument repair shop deal with it. There is a chance that he gauge cluster might have a bad connection at the circuit board ribbon cables, etc.
    2 points
  44. New to foruM I’ve been off-roading my 99 Rx300 for some time. I have some mods and some other stuff
    2 points
  45. 2 points
  46. We got 274,000 miles out of our 2001 RX 300. The engine was running like a top but the transmission failed. With that amount of miles, we sold it to a junkyard. Then I spent two months looking for a replacement. We wanted a 2009 RX. I just can't get around the weird looking 2010 and newer models. All the '09 Rx's I saw were more than we wanted to spend. Then another 2001 RX showed up as a trade in at a local dealership for $2000 with only 125,000 miles on it. Come to find out it had a rebuilt title for a minor front end collision in '04 and the dealership just wanted it gone. So I drove it and as soon as I left their driveway I felt something slip. There was snow and ice about and I was on the way to my mechanic so I thought little about it. After looking over the car my mechanic said If I didn't buy it he would. He really didn't check it out as I would so I really put it to a little extreme use and noticed the tranny slipping again. A friend of mine has a tranny shop and we figured we'd get the tranny replaced for $4200 and pay the $2000 (Damn dealership would not come down anymore) for a total of $6200. We came real close to buying another 1999 RX for $6400 with 145,000 miles and it needed a timing belt replaced. Now we're driving the new to us 2001 RX for a week and a camshaft snaps!! Engine wasted due to metal everywhere.. This was supposed to be my daughter's car to go to college with. What NOW!! I'm sure you can guess, we bought a remanufactured engine that is being installed as I write this. We will not have a $10,000 2001 RX 300!! The moral of the story is keep your RX 330 if its running great and just needs a few things now and then, I hear some of them will go to 350,000 miles.
    2 points
  47. It could be a good opportunity if you really want an LS 500 and especially if you plan to keep it a long time. You might be able to negotiate a even lower price based on the vehicle's history. I read recently that there are still a lot of unsold new 2018 LS 500's so the market for them is apparently very soft. Other than its run-flat tires and no spare tire, my main problem with the LS 500 is the shrinking interior which now has a volume within a tenth of a cubic foot of the space of a 2019 Toyota Camry with its optional moonroof. The Camry we rented 6 weeks ago was actually roomier than an LS 500 since the rental Camry didn't have a moonroof. Of course, Toyota/Lexus is too ashamed of it to publish interior volume dimensions for the LS 500 so it's necessary to go elsewhere to find them: https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/lexus/ls/2018/specs/ls-awd-398085 Lexus LS 500 - Passenger Volume (cu. ft.): 99.4 Toyota Camry (with moonroof) - 99.3 cu. ft. per https://www.toyota.com/content/ebrochure/2019/camry_ebrochure.pdf I know the luxury sedan market has shrunk due to the flight to SUV's but I never expected the Lexus LS interior to shrink.
    2 points
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